People build personal brands (personal brands) to increase and inform their competitiveness. No one in their social life questions the necessity and importance of personal brands. However, there are people who find the process of building a personal brand difficult. Typically, this is not easy for introverts.
What does it take for introverts who relatively enjoy time alone and do not reveal themselves to build and promote their personal brand. Mail Business MK Biz Review interviewed Goldie Chan, author of “Personal Branding for Introverts,” which was recently published overseas.
Chan is also an introvert, and it was difficult to create and expand his personal brand at first. The way he chose to build his personal brand was to post branding and marketing-related videos on LinkedIn. As a result of consistently posting videos every day since 2017, Chan posted more than 800 branding and marketing videos, expanded his presence online, and was recognized by people as a branding expert. After building his personal brand like this, he founded U.S. branding agency Warm Robots in 2018 and is currently serving as CEO. Wim Robert’s clients include Lego, Adobe and Pinterest.
In the interview, Chan defined the personal brand as “the person’s choice of ‘my image that I want to let the world know’. Furthermore, he advised to form a partnership with extroverts to build an introverted personal brand. An example is the partnership between Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. “The reason why the introvert Wozniak was able to become a brand as a pioneer in the technology sector was because the outgoing Jobs actively informed people of Wozniak’s technological abilities,” he said. The following is the question and answer.
-What is the definition of “personal brand”.
“Personal brands represent how individuals want to reveal themselves to the world. In other words, it is ‘my appearance that I want to inform the world’ selected by the individual. But personal brands can be misconstructed.
The reason why personal brands are misestablished is that reputation and personal brands are confused. Reputation is what someone else looks at. In the absence of an individual, what others say about the person is a “reputation.”
If someone builds a personal brand based on the opinions of others, that personal brand is created incorrectly. To avoid this, people must begin the process of building a personal brand with self-reflection. It’s self-reflection by asking questions such as, ‘What do I value?’ and ‘What do you want to be known to the world?’
-How to build personal branding for introverts.
“As I said there, there are five levels. The first is to set career goals. For example, set a goal of “becoming a marketing expert in the next five years” and attach that goal to where it appears.
The next step is to gradually create personal branding, capturing small opportunities. You should create at least three opportunities to get closer to achieving your goals. It creates opportunities, such as leaving a short article on a link-in or registering in an industry-related online community where individuals work.
After that, you have to draw a big picture to achieve your career goals. In the previous course, if you wrote briefly on LinkedIn, the third step is to create a newsletter based on your personal expertise, open your own online community, invite your current and former colleagues, and contact the organizers of the industry’s large conference to propose a keynote speech at the conference.
The fourth step is to set a realistic deadline. This means that we need to set a deadline for the things planned in the 2nd and 3rd stages. Examples include “registering to the online community within two weeks” and “completing a linked-in newsletter within this month.”
The final step is to check the progress. In a month, you have to take responsibility for yourself, checking your progress to complete at least one ‘big picture’.”
-He said that partnering with extroverts also helps establish a personal brand that is an introvert.
“Yes, let’s say it’s a difficult place for the introverts to respond. In this environment, it is difficult for introverts to express their opinions. In this situation, if extroverts who have partnered with each other step forward and add support to the introvert’s opinion, the introvert’s opinion can receive more attention and be conveyed. The partnership between introverts and outsiders helps them focus the attention of others without having to struggle alone.”
-Give me an example of an introvert who has strengthened his personal brand through partnerships with extroverts.
“There is Apple co-founder Wozniak, who also cited it as an example in that book. For Wozniak, who was an introvert, it was uncomfortable to promote and talk about the early Apple technology he made. His partner Jobs, who was an extrovert, was a great help to Wozniak. Jobs actively informed people of Wozniak’s technical skills and strengths, and Apple also provided a comfortable space tailored to Wozniak so that he could share his expertise with others. With the help of outgoing Jobs, Wozniak was able to build a personal brand called a “tech pioneer.”
-What is the most difficult process for introverts in the process of building personal branding.
“Introverts have the hardest time making themselves visible to others. There is a fear of revealing yourself. To overcome this, it is recommended to start with a small task. Start by sharing a single idea or personal story. If these ‘small things’ accumulate, the confidence of the introverts will also increase.”
-Even if an introvert is active online, it can be difficult to get attention. Is there a way to strengthen your online presence.
“Introverts’ online activities are not noticed through viral marketing. Consistency and empathy are important for introverts. You can attract other people’s attention through continuous weekly or monthly online publications
-How to maintain your personal brand after you build it.
“Personal brands are never fixed. Just as people grow and priorities change over time, personal brands should also “evolve” accordingly. Personal brands are like clothes in a closet. Clothes that looked perfect five years ago, may not fit anymore. The same goes for personal brands. If an individual changes over time, the personal brand must also change.
You should regularly check whether your values, etc., are still consistent with the personal brands you have established in the past. And if personal brand updates are deemed necessary, visitors can refine what they post online, highlight new interests, and adjust their personal brands step by step.”
-What should I do if my personal brand and personal reputation don’t match.
“As I said earlier, personal brands tell us how individuals want to reveal themselves to the world. On the contrary, reputation is an individual’s view. If these two do not match, the reason is ‘lack of consistency’. Even if you build the world’s most sophisticated personal brand, if your words and actions are different, there is a gap between your personal brand and your reputation.
In order to match personal brand and reputation, you must eventually realize your own value through action. The true value of the individual is revealed through how to treat colleagues around him and how to overcome them when frustrated. If your personal brand and personal reputation do not match, don’t regard it as a personal branding failure, but regard it as a valuable piece of data. And change your personal behavior based on that data so that your personal brand and reputation match.”
-Is the personal branding and reputation of successful leaders consistent.
“The personal branding and reputation of the most trusted leaders are in line. People follow leaders they can trust, and this trust comes from personal branding and correspondence with reputation. For example, if a personal brand established by a leader is “a person who values transparency” and the actual reputation is “a person who does not share information,” people’s trust in that leader is low
[Senior Yoon]
